City continues search for recycling center

The city of Ruston is still looking for a place to take its recycling after a fire on June 12 destroyed the Texas recovery center it had been using.

Until a new single-stream recycling location is found, recyclables collected by the city aren’t being recycled. Instead, they’re going into the same waste stream as household garbage.

Single-stream recycling, which is what Ruston does, means recyclables don’t have to be separated by the customer prior to pickup.

“We have several feelers out but for the time being no place to take single stream,” Public Works Director John Freeman said Thursday. “ I’m hoping something changes from day to day, hour to hour.”

Recycling customers inside the city limits pay $10 per month for weekly pickup, while customers outside the city limits in the designated pick-up zones pay $10 per month for twice-a-month pickup, according to the city’s website.

There are no plans to adjust the fees even though the recyclables aren’t being recycled, Mayor Ronny Walker said Friday.

The city is continuing to pick up recycling on its regular schedule and taking it to the Lincoln Parish Landfill where it’s being dumped in with household and commercial garbage.

That means the paper, plastic, cardboard, and other recyclables aren’t being kept separate from other refuse like they have been, and, for the time being, won’t be recycled.

“We’re looking feverishly trying to find a place, and unfortunately there’s not that many places to go,” Walker said.

Ruston found itself in a jam after a June 12 fire destroyed the Texas materials recovery facility Ruston had been using. Local officials weren’t notified about the blaze that destroyed Rivers Recycling in Kilgore, Texas, until June 20.

Rivers was the only singlestream recycling facility between Dallas and Ruston, according to a story published in the Kilgore News Herald.

Though the city tried one small recycling center in the area, the center couldn’t handle the load, Freeman said.

Ruston collects about three tons of recycling every week.

The city started its recycling program in 2017 and has about 800 recycling customers, most of whom are inside the city limits. No new customers are being accepted until the recovery facility situation is solved.